I was wondering if anyone else saw this pop up on eBay; one of the earliest audio interviews (or the earliest?) of Tolkien from a 1957 radio show in Chicago. There's a smattering of info/quotes from it here and there (H&S Chron. p 527, RG p514, 516; Annot. Hobbit p8, 210; ALA Bulletin, Feb 1957, p120, etc.) but I'm curious if there are other audio copies floating around (not including the 'tape recording' stored at the Library of Congress). Oxfam was selling it on eBay and in response to my question they surmised that, "perhaps only one acetate set was made at the recording session and that either that or a copy was used for the US broadcast." Does anyone here have additional info about this they'd be willing to share?

I don't think there is a single definitive answer (and anyone who suggests there is, is almost certainly wrong, based on the disparities in judgments over the years).

From the above,

"All of this is seldom of any great practical consequence to writers. In the absence of some agreement to the contrary, if the interviewee knew he was being interviewed, a court would virtually always conclude that, at the very least, the interviewee had implicitly granted the interviewer a non-exclusive license to publish the resulting interview. "

... which is exactly what I supposed in my earlier post ("Is that definitely the case? It would render pretty much any interview impossible to broadcast. Surely the radio station must at least effectively have an implied perpetual license to use the words, even if the copyright remains with the interviewee..")

Druss wrote:Hello there,Do you know if it exists a transcript of this interview somewhere?

I don't think it does exist, my question about copyright on this interview, was to see if it could be reproduced, but this can only be done if you know who owns the copyright, and I don't think we know this.

Interviews are generally licensed as a non-exclusive and can be shared freely, if one were to publish it online on a blog or news site then as long as the entity or person who conducted the interview and the interviewee are given credit there is little that can be done by anybody else who thinks they may have some claim to it.

If it is an interview conducted under an exclusive license then anybody who wanted to publish it would need to seek permission.

Anybody wishing to publish more than fair use in a for profit project would need specific permission from the copyright holder to do so.

The copyright holder is always the creator of the text unless both parties agree other terms. The question (copyright of the interviewer), the answer (copyright of the interviewee).

Interviews are shared so often that they are rarely even filed for copyright until some over-bullish party decides it should own that 60 year old interview they never knew existed until somebody published it. Their first contact if they do own an exclusive license should be to request you cease sharing said work. You should then remove it from your website/blog upon them demonstrating that they do control the text.

Long story short, this audio interview can be shared if it is a non-exclusive license.

Under no construction of "Fair Use" may one republish the entirety of a work that is still under copyright, even if the creator(s) and/or copyright holder(s) are credited. That is as true of an interview as it is of any other tangible work.

Under no construction of "Fair Use" may one republish the entirety of a work that is still under copyright, even if the creator(s) and/or copyright holder(s) are credited. That is as true of an interview as it is of any other tangible work.

I don't think anyone has suggested that they can. You seem to be creating a straw-man to argue against, now. What has been suggested is that the organiser of the interview retains a right to use the interview, unless there is something else in place to restrict that. My argument from the start is that the entity conducting the interview retains rights, and it is not as simple as "the interviewee owns it". In your world, does the interviewee own the interviewers words, as well? (An interview is created by more than one party, otherwise it would be a monologue...).

You are going to have to cite some credible sources for your position on this, given that it disagrees with essentially every other article I can find on the matter (and a direct discussion with at one print journalist here in NZ). Just because you keep saying essentially the same thing, without any useful citations, doesn't make it true. At least put some effort into backing up your position, perhaps with some case law and specific examples (or links to secondary sources that quote the same).

Druss wrote:Hello there,Do you know if it exists a transcript of this interview somewhere ?

In response to your question Druss, in the 'works consulted' section of Scull/Hammond's Reader's Guide, Part II it says that the information used was received from a "Private transcription from [a] tape recording in the Library of Congress."

Interviews are shared so often that they are rarely even filed for copyright until some over-bullish party decides it should own that 60 year old interview they never knew existed until somebody published it. Their first contact if they do own an exclusive license should be to request you cease sharing said work. You should then remove it from your website/blog upon them demonstrating that they do control the text.

Long story short, this audio interview can be shared if it is a non-exclusive license.

Then Aelfwine responded:

Under no construction of "Fair Use" may one republish the entirety of a work that is still under copyright, even if the creator(s) and/or copyright holder(s) are credited. That is as true of an interview as it is of any other tangible work.

Then Stu said:

I don't think anyone has suggested that they can.

I do feel that Aelfwine had a good point in response to onthetrail here, as I also read the first quote as condoning posting a copy of the entire interview on a forum somewhere as being acceptable.

I'll ask a favor from everyone at this point - if you have anything additional to add here either through direct experience or from research with citations, it will be welcome, but we seem to have gone into deeply theoretical and speculative territory and it may be better to let it rest otherwise.

From a site perspective - alternate views and argument is welcome in these discussions, and tastes definitely differ and hopefully will be recognized as such rather than seen as attacks of taste against one another. However, TolkienGuide the site recognizes the moral right of interviewer/interviewee to own the work (whichever or both) through the timeframe that copyright applies, and doesn't condone copying and sharing without permission even if there is a technical interpretation that this could be acceptable in a court of law.

And bonus points if you find the Tolkien related book title hiding up there - on purpose - to try and keep this post on topic for the site.

Interviews are shared so often that they are rarely even filed for copyright until some over-bullish party decides it should own that 60 year old interview they never knew existed until somebody published it. Their first contact if they do own an exclusive license should be to request you cease sharing said work. You should then remove it from your website/blog upon them demonstrating that they do control the text.

Long story short, this audio interview can be shared if it is a non-exclusive license.

Then Aelfwine responded:

Under no construction of "Fair Use" may one republish the entirety of a work that is still under copyright, even if the creator(s) and/or copyright holder(s) are credited. That is as true of an interview as it is of any other tangible work.

Then Stu said:

I don't think anyone has suggested that they can.

I do feel that Aelfwine had a good point in response to onthetrail here, as I also read the first quote as condoning posting a copy of the entire interview on a forum somewhere as being acceptable.

I'll ask a favor from everyone at this point - if you have anything additional to add here either through direct experience or from research with citations, it will be welcome, but we seem to have gone into deeply theoretical and speculative territory and it may be better to let it rest otherwise.

From a site perspective - alternate views and argument is welcome in these discussions, and tastes definitely differ and hopefully will be recognized as such rather than seen as attacks of taste against one another. However, TolkienGuide the site recognizes the moral right of interviewer/interviewee to own the work (whichever or both) through the timeframe that copyright applies, and doesn't condone copying and sharing without permission even if there is a technical interpretation that this could be acceptable in a court of law.

And bonus points if you find the Tolkien related book title hiding up there - on purpose - to try and keep this post on topic for the site.

To be honest, I missed the bit that onthetrail wrote, and thought that Aelfwine was replying directly to me. Using the quote function when replying certainly makes it clear who is replying to who, especially when the thread is paginated.